As part of Canisius’ efforts to streamline technology services and responsibly manage resources, the university will transition from Zoom to Microsoft Teams as its primary video conferencing platform, effective June 1, 2025. This strategic move leverages the university’s existing Microsoft suite subscription and is projected to result in important cost savings.
Microsoft Teams offers many of the same collaboration tools as Zoom plus additional features including seamless integration with Outlook calendar, no time limits on meetings, department/office chat groups (called Chats) and sharing groups (called Teams) to quickly share important documents amongst members.
To help ensure a smooth transition, faculty and staff are encouraged to:
- Visit the Microsoft Office Support: Teams Tutorials Wiki Page
- Sign up for a 30-minute Microsoft Teams Workshop
- Schedule a 1-on-1 appointment with COLI staff
As part of this transition, licensed Zoom accounts will no longer be accessible after June 1, 2025. Therefore, if you have important videos stored in Zoom’s cloud, please download them by May 31, 2025 to avoid any loss of content.
At the same time, ITS and COLI will shift support to Microsoft Teams as the university’s primary video conferencing platform. Faculty and staff will still have access to the free version of Zoom, however, please note that it has certain limitations. Learn more about these limitations here. Additional information and resources can be found here.
We appreciate your cooperation during this transition and are excited about the opportunities Microsoft Teams offers for improved collaboration across our campus community.
Submitted by: Tyler Kron-Piatek, instructional designer, COLI
